Earlier in the news, we told you about the passing of prolific journalist, 39-year-old Aaron Humes.
For the past few years, Humes had been working at Breaking Belize News where he had hundreds of bylines.
His boss, CEO Hugh O'Brien today told us how deeply saddened he was at Humes' sudden passing.
He added that perhaps the most memorable moment in Humes' career was his leaked phone call with former SSB Chairman Doug Singh in April, 2020, when Singh was subsequently forced to step down from his public posts for offensive comments.
O'Brien said the leak was accidental, but it still earned Humes praise. We spoke with him via Zoom.
Hugh O'Brien, CEO - BBN
"I'm saddened by his death. I have to admit, I cried and I felt the pain of his mom, his sister, and his brother. I spoke with him the night before last Sunday night. And one of the reasons why I'm sudden is because I had intentions to call him last night after 11, because he wrote a story about the guy in Cayo that was the home invasion, the guy Sierra that was killed."
"Well, he was shot and he died after. And that story went viral. So I had intended to call him. I made the effort to call him to congratulate him. And what would have been the story that had the most traffic yesterday?"
"And it was after 11 and I was a bit tired too. I was getting ready to go and sleep. And I figured he may have been doing the same. So I didn't call him last night. So I like to be in touch with people."
"And when they die and I didn't make that last connection, it does have a little bit of pain that it leaves behind, right? So I've been speaking with him almost every night for the last week or so, except last night."
"I never made that call. He's gone now and sad to say goodbye to our hard-working brother. But Belize and breaking Belize News will miss Aaron. Before we close, Jules, I must highlight a specific moment in his career when Aaron did an interview with Doug Singh during COVID."
"And he normally would record his interviews, but on the phone, but he never realized that he was recording. And if he, and he didn't even, he didn't tell Doug Singh, but he never realized he was recording. And if he, and he didn't even, he didn't tell Doug Singh, but he never realized he was recording."
"And knowing Aaron that was an honest mistake to not know he was recording. And so when the interview finished, he kind of realized he had the recording and he put the recording in our staff chat, which only our staff Breaking Belize News staff. And at that print time we didn't have very many people in our staff. In that 10-minute lifespan, somebody from the chat group, I guess, shared it with a friend or shared it with somebody. And it shows you the power of technology nowadays. "
"In that 10-minute time span, that interview went viral. It was not intended for public consumption, but it did. And Aaron was blamed for it. And he made a mistake to, not know it was recorded, he made a mistake to put it in a chat group he felt was our chat group of real, real friends."
"And maybe somebody shared it with another friend in an honest way and the damage was done. And Aaron got some accolades for that interview. But that was not an intention that Aaron had. He was not looking for accolades."
"It was just doing an honest interview."
